


and especially you

by catsvspatriarchy



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 21:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8117479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsvspatriarchy/pseuds/catsvspatriarchy
Summary: But of the two of them, Abby was always better with chaos.
-
Erin and Abby, on the roof after it's all over.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello ghost friends
> 
> i'm genuinely terrified to post anything so please send only the gentlest of hate-o-grams, ok thanks

The lights blink out after about half an hour, and the buildings light up again as normal. Erin thinks it's lucky they saw them at all, and Abby takes a hundred photos on her phone. Although it's all over twitter and instagram, so maybe she wouldn't need to save those memories.

Erin scrolls through them after Holtz and Patty go for food. It's turning cold up on the roof, but she thinks going to get her coat would break the spell. She's no stranger to the lights of the city - chronic insomnia means she's spent a lot of time in quiet contemplation of them, in fact - but there's something in the air tonight. There's the snap of approaching fall and the beat of the city and beside it all there's Abby, and so much of all of this has been about Abby.

"Did you really need this many angles?" Erin asks her, swiping to the next photo. There's one of each building that had lit up with Thank Yous and NY Loves Yous, multiples of the skyline, and artistically arranged smaller groups of lights. There's a couple of the building lit up with "GB", and Erin has to admit it's pretty, even though she's not really sold on that acronym and she still thinks "Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination" would look _amazing_ on a marquee.

Abby's still leaning out over the edge of the building, as though she's waiting for something else. Erin's secretly (or maybe not-so-secretly, given the look Abby gave her) afraid of heights, and she's moved toward the door, resting her back against the wall. She can still see fine from back here, and she doesn't have to have that constant anxiety that she's tipping over the edge.

Not that she's had room for that anxiety in the last few minutes, since Abby started leaning on her folded arms on the balustrade.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Abby looks back at her over one shoulder. Her eyes are still shining. "I just wanted to keep the memory of this. Tonight. Thought I'd print some out, maybe. Keep 'em as souvenirs."

Erin suppresses a smile. Abby's always been a packrat - Erin remembers her high school bedroom with fondness and a nostalgic kind of wonder that someone could live in that chaos. But of the two of them, Abby was always better with chaos.

* * *

"Could you come away from the edge?"

"Why?" asks Abby. “Are you still afraid of heights? Come on, Erin, it's perfectly safe."

"I was never afraid of heights," lies Erin. "I just think it's a bad idea to stand right on the edge like that. What if you were hypoglycemic and you passed out and fell?"

"I'm not hypoglycemic," Abby says.

"Narcolepsy," suggests Erin. "African sleeping sickness."

"I have zero medical issues, as you well know, and there is a literal brick wall barrier in front of me. I'm not gonna fall, Erin."

Erin sighs. "Intellectually, I _know_ that. It's just - I was okay up here for a while, and then I made the mistake of looking down while I was standing next to Patty, and I don't want the others to think I'm a chicken, jeez, can you _imagine _the field day Holtzmann would have with that, and now all I can think about is maybe this roof could just crumble away or you'd lean too far out and then it's just falling, falling- I don't know. It's stupid! I know it's stupid! Just please take one step back so I can stop hyperventilating."__

Abby looks at her for a long moment, and then she does more than take a step back: she comes over to stand against the wall beside Erin. 

"Come on," she says after a moment. "Let's go in."

"No," Erin says. "I'm not afraid."

Abby snorts. "Oh, clearly. Well, sit your ass down then. You're really pale."

Erin slides her butt down the wall until she's on the ground. It's cold cement and it smells kind of disgusting up here, but given the kind of substances she's had full body contact with in the last week, it's not really a big deal.

"I'm probably just hungry," she says with dignity.

"You're a stubborn asshole, is what you are," Abby says, and slides down beside her. "You know, one day we need to have a serious talk about workplace safety and how you should not be willing to sacrifice your life for one of your colleagues. That was a freaking hell dimension, Erin."

Erin nods and steeples her fingers. "No."

"What?"

"You heard me. Turns out, I dragged you _out_ of that hell dimension - that's not a very scientific description, by the way - so who's the asshole now? But besides that, you know what? I'd completely and absolutely do it all again, even if I knew it wouldn't work."

"Erin!"

"And you know what else?" Erin says, warming to the topic. "It's ridiculous that you're bringing this up, because I like I told you, I'm not abandoning you again, and if you can't handle that, well, you'll just have to learn to - uh, handle it."

Abby tilts her head to the side. "You know, you've never been great in an argument."

"I just lose momentum," admits Erin, and rubs her arms.

Abby points at her. "You have trouble staying mad at anyone."

"Well, sure, I guess. Doesn't everyone?"

"No. I, for one, can pretty much stay mad forever."

"Yeah," says Erin. "I think I knew that. I'm glad we made up, by the way."

"I am too," says Abby, and rearranges herself more comfortably against the wall. She lifts her chin and looks up at the stars, and exhales a long breath. "Pretty night."

Erin's still looking at her. "It is."

"I mean, light pollution means we don't really see the stars like we could-"

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to help," Erin interrupts her, talking quickly. "When you were-" her voice trails off.

"Possessed?" Abby suggests.

Erin nods, looking even paler. "And Holtzmann was-"

"Thrown out of the window," Abby finishes. "Which reminds me, we should definitely do safety glass here. Two workplace safety incidents is two too many."

"I was just-"

"Ha!" says Abby. "Two too many. You see what I did there?"

"Funny," agrees Erin, without laughing. "But I really feel like I should have been here, really. I've known you a long time, so I probably would have figured out straight away that something was wrong."

"Actually, apparently Holtzmann worked it out pretty quickly."

Erin ignores her. "And, we've definitely theorized before about spectral possession. There were all kinds of remedies I could have tried."

"Turned out, a real hard smack in the face was pretty effective," Abby says, rubbing her jaw. "Patty's got a real swing. I think she loosened a tooth."

Erin sighs. She knows Abby hates sentimentality, but she's trying to make a point here. "In conclusion," she says, with perhaps a hint of irritability, "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you years ago. I'm sorry I wasn't here for you during all this. I'm _not_ going to apologize for pulling you out of the hell dimension-"

"Non-scientific terminology," Abby says, watching her with a faint smile on her face.

" _Hell dimension_ ," Erin reiterates. "Because friends help their friends, and in future I intend to keep being a good friend. That's it."

Abby nods.

"That's all I wanted to say," Erin says.

Abby nods again.

"You - can talk again now. I mean, if you want. I'm not saying you have to-"

That's when Abby leans over and kisses her. It takes Erin by surprise - she jerks backward, knocking her head against the wall, before it's more of a brush of lips against her own.

"Ow," she says reflexively, putting a hand to the back of her head and checking for blood. "I mean - oh."

Abby's standing up. "I always thought you were cute when you were flustered," she says. "Even cuter when you were mad."

Well, that - actually, that explained some things.

"Head injury?" Abby asks.

"No," Erin says slowly. 

"Good. I'm gonna go inside."

Erin needs a moment, to be honest, but the wind is whipping up and she's just wearing a thin shirt and jeans, and it has to be warmer inside, even if Holtzmann has been rerouting the heating for one of her projects. She follows Abby inside.

By the time they make it down to the first floor, Patty and Holtzmann have arrived with the food. Abby eats hot and sour soup with a satisfied expression over the soup:wonton ratio, talking happily with the group but not making much eye contact with Erin. Erin nibbles at an eggroll and occasionally rubs the back of her head. 

At one point, Abby and Patty are up refilling their drinks, and Holtzmann bumps Erin with her shoulder.

"Everything okay?" she asks, eyebrow raised.

"Mm," says Erin. "Just thinking."

Holtzmann taps the side of her nose. "Little advice, Erin my dove. Don't think too much. It can be very dangerous."

"I don't think that's true," Erin says, and then startles as Holtzmann throws another eggroll to her. She tries to catch it but it slips through her fingers and hits her face. 

"Oh, good try, Babe Ruth," Holtzmann says, and then: "Eat it. Everyone knows life looks better when you've got a full stomach."

“What is that even from?” asks Erin. “A fortune cookie?”

Holtzmann stares at her, mouth open in mock horror. “That is pure one hundred percent unadulterated Holtzmann wisdom, I'll have you know.” 

"Okay," says Erin. "Well. Thanks. I'll take it under advisement."

"Good," Holtzmann says, and claps her on the back so hard Erin almost drops her eggroll.

* * *

Holtzmann goes home early, which is unusual for her, but she says she's had a pretty big day working on their spectral entity containment system. So Abby and Patty sit around talking haunted sites of New York, and plans to expand the business, and Abby's strong opinions about Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Erin sits quietly and doesn't offer a lot to the conversation. She catches Patty looking at her quizzically a few times, but Erin thinks it's not so weird. If Abby or Holtz went quiet for an hour there'd be grounds for worry, but Erin keeps her own counsel, and she thinks her friends are probably growing used to that.

Abby could always draw her out, though, she thinks, remembering high school again. Erin had been so worn down by the bullying and the teasing, and by the way her parents looked at each other sideways any time she told them anything even slightly out of the ordinary. She alternated between being furiously angry that people didn't believe her and dull and resigned. It had all changed with Abby.

Abby had believed her right from the start and had decided they were friends practically immediately. Erin, who was stiff and nervous talking to people she didn't know well and who had spent elementary and middle school trying painfully hard to make friends with the other children, found Abby easy to talk to. Abby asked about her other classes and what books she liked and most importantly of all, what she thought about ghosts. It was always easy and fun being around her. Erin hadn't had that much easy and fun.

* * *

Eventually Erin must have dozed off, head in her hand, even though the office chairs they dragged in here aren't that comfortable and she's still not exactly warm. When she snaps awake Patty's getting her coat and it looks like Abby's planning to leave too.

"Wait," Erin says. "We can share a cab."

They wave goodbye to Patty outside, and once she's gone, Abby turns and glares at her. Which Erin figures is an improvement on not looking at her at all, but not much of one.

"I don't know if you've forgotten, but you live on the upper east side, Erin. We're not going in the same direction."

"I know," Erin says. "I wanted to talk to you. In private."

Abby looks away again, and Erin thinks she sees the hint of a blush on the other woman's cheekbones. She's never seen Abby blush. Not when talking to cute boys, not when they got excoriated by their physics teacher in front of the whole class (and Erin's still kind of smarting over that one), not when Erin ditched her for the interview about the book and Abby had had to face down all those questions by herself. Abby's an unstoppable force: nothing scares her, nothing truly worries her, and nothing intimidates her. 

Except, apparently, at the moment, Erin.

"I'd rather we didn't," Abby says. "I think we should just forget anything we talked about. On the roof. When we were talking. We should go on with our lives. Just go home and tomorrow we'll come in to work and we'll work, and you know, maybe one day a million years from now or so I'm not going to feel weird about this anymore, and it won't be awkward, and. Anyway. Bye."

She turns to leave, but Erin grabs her sleeve. "It's not awkward," she says simply.

"Oh, it's not?" Abby says, clearly about to work up a head of steam. "Wait. Wait. It's not?"

"It's not," says Erin. She has to tip her head and lean in a little - she's not used to kissing anyone shorter than her, but when her lips meet Abby's again, it's like coming home. Erin feels the puff of breath against her skin, Abby's mouth softening against hers, the heat of her. She still wears vanilla perfume, and Erin feels an ache in her belly when she thinks about the amount of times she's smelled vanilla over the years, and always, always thought of Abby. She draws away, slowly, sliding her hand down the soft skin of Abby's neck before stepping back.

"Not awkward," Erin says. "Or maybe a lot more awkward."

"Umm," says Abby, and Abby lost for words might just be another first.

"Should we talk about this?" Erin asks, when it seems like there's no more word forthcoming.

"No," Abby says, after a moment, and takes Erin's hand, and pulls her into her arms. It's a little rough - Abby doesn't seem to realize her own upper body strength, but when their lips meet again, Erin finds she doesn't mind. She doesn't mind at all.


End file.
